1.) Do you do conventions?
When we have enough money to! The last convention we went to was probably in 2008, 2007 we were going to Wizard World when we still were staying at Nick's parents house. That was when we had enough spare money and Platinum was offering DD members a free table space in the artist's alley. The one we went to (in I think 2008!) was just a wander-about rather than having a table. Oh man, I miss conventions! Pretty much, we would if we could and it's one of our goals.
2.) At one point you mentioned Mannick's siblings. Will they be making an appearance or are they more or less just added detail to the universe and the fact that he has siblings is trivia?
Mostly trivia, but I did work on a small story once on his "origin". (or at least, it was when he was born) I misplaced the pages but if I can find one i'll post it here in the forum.
3.) Will the donation raffle be happening still, or will the commissions be replacing it or are you unsure yet?
Uncertain at the moment. We loved doing the raffle, but unfortunately we felt really bad about how long it took for us to mail things out! Nick has to work from 8-7 most days, and our closest post office closes at 5:30, so that left us with a ridiculously small window of opportunity: Saturday, and by the time the weekend comes we've either got so much other stuff to take care of it ends up being pushed to the next weekend. I can hardly get anything done on the weekend
4.) Obviously there is some confusion as to how Hector is a werewolf and yet was made so, indirectly, by a vampire. Is there any insight you can provide without giving spoilers?
I think I may have mentioned it somewhere, but it is so buried in other things I won't make you look for something I wouldn't be able to find! (Heha, I found it! However, some things that I said in the forum were a little subject to change. I was kinda naughty about misleading people asking for spoilers in the past!)
I'll explain by way of bringing up Hector's sire, Mr. Noodle (wouldn't he be delighted to know his grand-sire is actually the same vampire he pestered to turn him?) Charby seems to be quite inordinately proud of his "turning" Mr. Noodle when Gabby confronts him about "making out with a doggy". Charby himself is usually pretty careful about not turning people (except for a few mistakes along the way, Gabby being one such) and tried in the past to kill his victims before feeding on them. So it would seem out of place for Charby to deliberately make a vampire, even if it was an animal (unless we take into consideration that sometimes Charby likes to make odd decisions...like using a wish to make himself male mosquito minions, " just because it sounded cool" to him!)
Another interesting bit of trivia that relates to this and perhaps a bit on the mythology I've decided to work with in-universe is that vampires were a lot closer to werewolves in the past than modern depictions would have us believe. In fact, in some myths a vampire was considered a werewolf someone failed to kill properly!
So now that I've drawn that out long enough, I'll cut to the chase. Mr. Noodle was dying when Charby found him, and decided to save his "life" by turning him into a vampire. He was dying because something had attacked him before Charby found him, and I'm sure you don't have to ask what it was that attacked the pup! Of course, I also left it up to interpretation whether this werewolf attack gave Mr. Noodle any hybrid abilities from his double-curse, or if it is just the nature of interspecies vampirism. Perhaps if Heck had been bitten by a vampire cat instead, there would be different results?
Also of interesting note, there is a sort of vampire that appears normal during the day but turns into a blood-drinking dog by night, but since the sources on this creature were not very consistent, I decided it was best to leave it at the more understandable werewolf set-up of the curse. While I want to include more obscure creatures, I am not so confident when I can't find much about them and even the place of origin isn't sure what it is!
5.) Similarly, the perpetual werewolf adds some confusion to what exactly a werewolf is in the CTV universe. Any possible insight there?
Certainly! Menu was made by (to borrow a D&D term) a "wolf-were" (for lack of a better term!) so he is in a unique situation from most other werewolves we may yet meet in the comic. It may also be worth mentioning that his "daddy" has been shown to possess magic powers of some sort.
Werewolf lore is actually as varied in some aspects as vampire lore, so there's no one solid "official" type that we'll see.
However, it is worth mentioning that werewolves and vampires spread their curse a little differently. At least as far as CTV is concerned, werewolves turn more from the act of their blood being drawn by a werewolf than by any contagion spread by said werewolf. There's a few other stories I've heard where someone was merely scratched by the werewolf and turned, so it's one of those sort of odd magical things rather much like an animal jumping over a grave or accidentally plucking wolfsbane that doesn't have much ryhme or reason other than "Because it does!"
6.) I noticed that Charby's "angel" form is reminiscent of Quixoto as far as general color scheme goes. Now, if it's significant, I've not got a clue what that means, beyond minor speculation, but I'd hope not to put too much stock in a coincidence if it is. Is it a "no spoilers" thing or more an artistic choice?
There's something to it, but perhaps not related to Quixoto so much. Or maybe. We'll just have to wait and see though, eh?
Charby's eventually gotta ask those Elites some questions!
7.) Page #637 Brotherly Bonding brings the same basic question that I have about Mannick.
It may be either Heck being panicky with one of those "But, you're my only brother" moments...or perhaps there's a reason that "favorite son" Hector has moved into Grandma M's home with Vic?
8.) Is there a decided location for Kellwood, like a state or general area like that? I can make assumptions based on the weather and the history of pirates, but assumptions don't do a whole lot for me.
Not a clear location, since it's sort of a hodge-podge of different areas I've grown up/travelled to. If it were on a map somehow, it would probably be jammed somewhere between Georgia and Pennsylvania (that's a lot of states that it could be but I doubt they fit the bill for all of Kellwood's characteristics!) It's just South enough to have milder weather, but it's really close to the ocean making it a coastal town. The town itself takes a lot of influence from downtown Pentwater and Ludington MI, where I would go to visit my grandparents for Summer vacation!
So it's entirely fictional, and much like some of my favorite fictional towns it's not easy to put on a map due to what the real location does and does not have!
The name is a blend of "Kellogsville" and "Kentwood", the name of the school I attended with the area of Grand Rapids I grew up in! I'm a little dismayed to find that Kellwood is also the name of a fashion company now though :c
9.) Where might one purchase the printed version of Nightschool and/or this new Tony book?
Night School unfortunately seems to be out of print (the print quality suuuucked so you're not missing much. They charged WAY too much for a book that was printed on the cheapest greyed paper and a cover that got scratched easy, even the manual that comes with elecrtonics was better quality print than this!) so I'd reccomend just sticking with the rather cheap PDF version on Wowio. As for the Tony book, we'll try to offer both at as reasonable a price as possible for print and probably really dirt cheap for the PDF version. We're still thinking about where we'll host it though.
10.) Now when it's stated that elites can turn "anything", might that go so far as to include plant life? I ask, because of the vampire pumpkins and watermelons that I'm actually only aware of due to the TGT Webcomics podcast in which you mentioned it. Yes, this may be a huge spoiler, but if it's just silly enough a concept, I figure it may be something you could eliminate. If you wish to just say "no spoilers" here, then I won't assume anything for either direction.
Hehe, I am honestly not sure! It was mostly referring to animal life, but that could be interesting. I'd immediately say "probably not" since plants don't quite "circulate" the way animals do, I think it would require great effort on the part of the vampire to get the plant to absorb its vampire-making spit, but I admit the idea intrigues me now! Not that I haven't thought about vampire plants before, just the idea of a vampire actively making one! I did have an old comic with a vampire watermelon though, if you saw it. Typically it seems vampire plants come into fruition (hee) because they were left out in days of certain mystical importance. They can't bite, but they can move of their own accord and probably drink blood by rolling around in it from what I understand!
11.) Is there a place I can read Mage at Large?
Not at the moment, but I'll try and finish the story I started and probably post it somewhere like on DA.
12.) Is "Menu" his actual name or a pseudonym he adopted after being turned into a werewolf?
Menu is the name that Charby gave him as a bit of a joke, but it stuck. Before that he was only known as "kid" by someone who was looking after him until he was turned over to an orphanage. By strange coincidence, it turns out that Menu is also the name of a moon god!
Alp Questions(in CTV):
1.) Are alps limited in the animals they can turn into?
I'm pretty sure, nothing larger than a horse since I've yet to hear any transformation bigger than that.
2.) Given that alps have multiple origin possibilities, and, if I understand correctly, from what the wikipedia article says, that an adult may be cursed to become an alp, would they remain tall, or "grow" into being a shot alp?
Perhaps not, for when they are out doing their thing they may assume another form as a disguise. From the stories I've read, alps such as this can be found out by "marking" them during an attack, which says to me that they don't look human when they are out at night. I think it is something similar to what we have with werewolves in fact. From what I understand, a cursed human alp is usually in animal form while on the prowl. Though, I do recall one story that indicates that some female alps did wander about fully human in appearance to torment dreams... however I don not awlays put much stock in "one instance". Another such story had the alp appear as a normal, full-sized woman after appearing in the night as a black cat. So it varies, still!
3.) How do alps get their hats?
I'm not even sure the German people who have shared their info with me could answer that! Well, the closest I can gather is what someone told me about the importance of hats in Teutonic myhology. Pretty much every creature is known to have a hat at some point. Dwarves,elves, kobolds, alps... the exact phrase was "standard issue" and another fellow from Germany supported this claim when I mentioned it
I suppose it's one of those mystical things that says "because it's not an X without one, is it?" without telling us where it came from! Considering also the importance of witches in Alp lore, it can also be assumed that they fashion it for them. However it comes to be, all I know is that when one becomes an alp a free magic hat comes with the deal...perhaps it is even a manifestation of their own soul? Of course, I'm reaching a bit with that one
It is something I aim to find out!
4.) Do both iron and steel effect alps?
Indeed iron does, so does steel supposedly but I'm not certain in what capacity. Pure metals like iron and silver certainly have a bad effect on creatures like alps and vampires, though I think I should make clear the distinction is that it is "forged" metal that has these magical beast-repelling properties rather than the unrefined ore.
5.) Yiska changes the color of her hat, but can the appearance of it be altered to look like a different one? Now this one has some reason behind it, in that not all alps' hats are the same, so there should be some deciding factor... right? Even if it has a default state, it is able to shift with their body, such as in mist form, and in proportion for animals. If they can't do it, then can they, at the very least, do so in dreams? I would assume that in order to make themselves more frightening(if they are the subject or "actor" in the dream), they could make themselves look any way they wanted, at least as an illusion, since it's not exactly real. There is some possible conflict with the whole "master" scenario, but it doesn't seem to be completely ruled out.
I'm going to answer this in reverse order
In dreams an alp can indeed alter his appearance dramatically, and probably doesn't often take a personal role in the nightmares like Tony does. When he went all monstrous in Vicky's dream, he doesn't have a hat in the panel where we see him clearly.
(though it could appear that it is simply off panel due to what looks like his hat in the second panel sillohuette) But he does when he is pretending to be Charby just for the sake of being cheeky about it! But he can, under normal circumstances, alter every bit of his appearance so long as he is controlling the dream himself.
In the case of the Master arc, he couldn't just influence Zeno's mind in the direction he wanted, he was physically inside his mind and unable to really control the situation because he couldn't locate Zeno's "center of mind" and take over. This is why Master was able to reverse his dog form and also use the borrowed pendant against him (also given that Master made the pendant himself, he was closer linked to it than Tony despite Hex "giving him consent" to use it). Tony had little control of what he looked like because it wasn't a dream of his making, but rather a combination of the Master's will and Zeno's flights of fancy, with his dreams set as the stage. It's sort of hard to describe all this so I hope I didn't confuse you more instead!
As for hat pliabilty in general: the size, visibilty and tangibility of the hat can change with the alp but when it comes to solid physical forms it stubbornly refuses to alter. That is to say, misty alps have a misty hat because it changes with them. Same goes for invisibilty (would be pretty useless otherwise!) but any other physical form is described to have the hat. I don't imagine the hat can change much in appearance except by outside influence. I've never seen an authoritative description of the hat and sources vary or are very open to interpretation (usually it's "A hat of some sort" " A hat, hood or veil" "felt hat" or on one occasion, "Wide-brimmed felt hat" , but is usually open to the scope of many wild hats that people don't typically wear but fair-folk enjoy in their wardrobe. In my comic I decided that a tarnkappe usually reflects something about the alp that wears it. Also, most alps that didn't have a hitch in their development will have more traditional tarnkappes. Something befitting of Elfin kind, the "standard issue" I mentioned earlier. However, Tony's story will show how he ended up with such an anachronistic hat for the time he grew up in!
Yiska is actually a special case in-universe (and out) in that she isn't so much changing the color or properties of the hat itself but the way it is percieved with other magics. The bird skulls on her hat weren't actually a part of it when her hat..."manifested" (however that happens! I do recall a story about tarnkappes sprouting alps from them though, just wish I could remember who sent it to me and where!) and they might do more than just look nice
In short, let's just say that as a member or the mysterious Bureau, Yiska has a few more things at hand than Tony or other alps.
Hehe, as to the rest of the stuff brought up, I'll have to think about it and address it at a time when I can focus a bit more, haha!
But as for plants, they aren't quite dandelions and thistles that Mye uses for potions. Without getting too much into how it works in my own mind, I've taken a look at a lot of old "potions" (and alchemy) and they do call for the oddest things. Sometimes it seems like you're making a disgusting soup to appeal to whatever magical "thingy" that will do your bidding, or you're bringing together things with slight magical properties (like the above mentioned Wolfsbane) that will bolster one aspect of the spell you are working on. For instance, people once thought walnuts were good for the mind because they resembled brains. A spell that involves the mind may require a few walnuts to be tossed in, for example! I don't know if all of it involves effigy in such a way, but at least for my own intents and purposes that is the direction I go. It's mostly about synergy. It's not that any one ingredient is special on its own, it's how it reacts to the whole mix and the magic words that matters!
It's the difference of what you use, that you end up with a perfect cake, or a blob of hot batter that tastes like baking powder and garlic! Of course, think about it too much and you start wondering why saying anything aloud would produce magical effects!